February 25, 2013

a pile of stuff #31

It's up! as many already know, the inaugural Stella Prize longlist is out. Read all about the nominated books and their authors in more detail at the Stella Prize website.

A "digital version of passing notes in class" called Snapchat has been profiled in the New York Times. It allows messages and photos to be sent which self-destruct not long after they are opened. Via Bob Stein on if:book.

At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Lili Loofbourow has mounted a case for Tolkien's Gollum having been lifted from Thelma, a novel by best-selling British female writer, Marie Corelli:

Given how extensive the parallels are between Sigurd and Gollum, it’s hard to understand how they could have gone unnoticed until now. Much as I’d like to claim credit for being an exquisitely sensitive reader, it’s almost impossible to encounter Sigurd without seeing Gollum. And yet no one, to my knowledge, has made the connection before. How is this possible, given that Corelli, Haggard, and Tolkien were all bestsellers?

Alison Flood got 99 comments on the splitting of infinitives at the Guardian blog recently. I haven't scanned them all to see if anyone else remembers Billy Liar's dictum on the matter though.

Finally, there is a very fine launch going on at Bennett's Lane, one of my favourite places, on Thursday 28th. Ilura Press is launching issue 11 of Etchings, evocatively titled Three Chords and The Truth and you are all invited for music, nibbles and readings. Go, then catch Cloud Atlas later in the evening.